


Lost in the Weeds

by Upsetapplecart



Series: All Out Fic Week 2018 [6]
Category: ALL OUT!! - Amase Shiori (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Abusive parents mentioned, M/M, Poor understanding of gardering, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 05:44:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20989805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Upsetapplecart/pseuds/Upsetapplecart
Summary: In which the weeding is done, emotions are felt and Ebumi gets himself a date, all in that order.





	Lost in the Weeds

Matsuo had been weeding just long enough to be getting existential about it all, so the crunch of gravel behind him was a welcome reprieve from contemplating his place in the universe.

“It’s all good, Dad, I’ve got it under control.” He held up his fist full of weeds, “Just sit and rest will you?”

“Since I know jack shit about plants I’m gonna have to believe you.”

Ebumi had his hands jammed in his pockets as usual, but to his credit he did lean closer and squint at the upheld vegetation. “What are they anyway?”

Matsuo looked down at the plants, and then back at Ebumi.

“Domkdami. It’s a weed. What are you doing here?”

Ebumi squinted at the plants a little longer. “If you’re sure.”

“Ebumi.” Matsuo said, feeling a little pulled out of the ground himself, “Why are you in my backyard?”

“There a reason I shouldn’t be? Not allowed to drop in and see a friend am I?” Ebumi said, all leer and peacock posturing, ever on the search for something to be offended about.

Then Ebumi deflated a little, and looked a little more sheepish than wolfish.

“Plus, your parents saw me lurking around the front, and said I might as well just come in and see you.”

Matsuo had to laugh at that. His mother was like human duct tape, always at the ready to fix things.

“No reason you shouldn’t, just figured that with school over you wouldn’t need to come see me for homework answers anymore.” He threw the weeds into the wheelbarrow, and smacking his hands together to knock off the dirt, turned and smiled at Ebumi.

“Also, don’t Ise and you usually hang out today?”

Ebumi had been smiling, but at the mention of Ise’s name, he looked like someone had trod on his toe. A quick wince of pain, and a grimace. 

Matsuo didn’t stop smiling, but he did start thinking, why would-

The blooming flowers in the flower bed behind Ebumi caught his eye- spring. April. Oh.

Still smiling, Matsuo walked over to the bucket containing his gardening tools, and digging out his spare pair of gloves, threw them at Ebumi.

“What the hell, man?!” A desperate scrabble and Ebumi was clutching them to his chest, indignant as a surprised cat.

“If you’re gonna lurk around here you might as well help out, I’ve got to pull up this whole patch of weeds.” He indicated the patch he had been working on with a wave of a hand.

It spread out for a few meters, a wild tumble of industrious plants that were crowding their way from the back fence up towards the garden beds, and the house.

“All that?” Ebumi asked, frowning.

Matsuo said, “I’d normally manage it on my own, but-“ He shrugged like it was no big deal.

Ebumi had started to put the gloves on before Matsuo had even finished his sentence. 

“Fine. I’ll help.”

Matsuo smiled.

“Thanks, I’ll keep going here and you can start on the opposite side. We’ll work our way down to the fence.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Just make sure you keep up, I’m not doing it all.” Ebumi said, ambling over and heaving his first weed out, two handed, before flinging it over his shoulder, and grabbing the next one.

Matsuo laughed and shook his head.

“In the wheelbarrow, Ebumi.”

“Yeah, yeah. I knew that. You just shut up and do your side.”

The next pulled weed landed neatly in the wheelbarrow.

Matsuo nodded and went back to his own side, zoning out as he pulled up weed after weed. The gentle snuffling and grunts of Ebumi going all out on his end of the weeding patch providing a soothing background rhythm as he mused.

Matsuo had almost thoroughly lost himself in the mindlessness of it all when there was a mumble from Ebumi.

“Nice ice today.”

Matsuo frowned, that probably wasn’t right. “Sorry, Ebumi?”

“Ise left today, for you know, uni.”

“Oh.” Said Matsuo. Well, that was his suspicions about the lurking and the unnatural subduedness confirmed.

They’d both known it was coming, he supposed. Ise wanted to get himself out, and educated, and well, a better life in general. Ebumi, well he probably wanted that too, he just wanted to get there in a different way.

“I get how you felt now but,” Ebumi was flinging weeds into the barrow as fast as his hands could fling. “Well, not the wanting to go to uni bit, I don’t give a fuck about that.”

Matsuo started to pull weeds out again.

“Just, he’s gone. And he’s gonna have adventures without me, and I don’t care, that’s cool. But I can’t, won’t follow, and that, well things will be different.”

There was a loud thwack as a weed hit the pile in the barrow particularly hard.

“Plus, we won’t really get to play rugby together again, so that sucks.”

Another thwack.

“But he’s out of that bloody house now. So that’s good.”

Thwack. Thwack.

“I’m gonna miss him.”

Thwack.

Silence descended and Matsuo looked over at Ebumi, who was glaring at the weeds he was suppose to be industriously pulling out.

His hair was much longer than when they had first met, and he still had his runner body, but his punk clothes had gotten a little more civil, if not less poorly matched, in the last few years. And he hadn’t yelled at anyone to start a fight in at least a few months.

It almost made Matsuo nostalgic for screaming matches and the punky sulking.

Matsuo yanked a weed out, and said, “You know what? I think when we’ve finished this patch we should go get something to eat, just the two of us uni blow offs.”

There was a stutter in Ebumi’s weed pulling.

“Fine, but you’re buying.”

Matsuo scoffed. “Of course not, you’re the loaded one, I am merely a humble gardener.”

Ebumi scoffed now, as if no one had ever told such a blatant lie in his hearing before.

“Fine. But only if it’s a date.”

Matsuo smiled enigmatically at him, and winked.

“You’re a right fucker, is what you are.” Ebumi said, but if he had been weeding fast before, it was supersonic now.

They did go to lunch. Ebumi did purchase it, and Matsuo promised himself the moment it stopped being funny to watch him stew, he would tell Ebumi it had been a date.

Not bad for two university drop outs, Matsuo decided. And his dad was impressed with the cleared backyard.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr for the 2018 All Out Fic Week. Prompt, 'Spring'. Cheers to my beta reader, who if fic were gardens and mistakes weeds, she has the greenest thumb of all.


End file.
